On 3rd December 1967, an unprecedented milestone was achieved in the field of medical science and practice. On this day, the first human heart transplant was successfully done by a surgeon named Christian Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa. The recipient of the new heart was a 53 year old man while the donor was just 25. Though the recipient of the new heart died 18 days after the surgery, the transplant was still considered a success because the patient died from pneumonia and not from heart complications.
Many more heart transplants were carried out in this Cape Town hospital. Out of the first 10 transplants that were done in this hospital, four patients survived for more than one year while one lived for 13 years and another survived for as long as 23 years. The longest surviving heart transplant patient is a man named Harold Sokyrta who survived for almost 35 years after receiving his transplant on 3rd June 1986.
Yet, the above narration is only about the heart as an indispensable organ in our body. It is the heart which keeps us alive by beating and pumping blood to the different body parts. That is why when the arteries through which blood flows to and from the heart are blocked, the result is often a fatal stroke or heart attack. Yes, of all the organs in the human body, the heart is undoubtedly the most vital and crucial because whether a person is still alive or already dead will be determined by whether his heart is still beating or not. In other words, a person may be brain-dead or his vital organs may be shutting down. But if his heart is still beating, he will be considered still alive. On the other hand, even if the other organs are working fine, he will be considered dead the moment his heart stops beating. Therefore, the importance of the heart in our body even as a mere organ cannot be underestimated.
However, apart from being just a most vital organ in our body, the heart has come to signify and mean much more to us in both the seen and unseen realms of our life. The heart has become an embodiment of our thoughts, beliefs, imaginations, sentiments, attitudes and perspectives. This is why, in every religious books, the “Heart” is the most often quoted term. And in every song we hear and sing, be it devotional song, love song, secular song or earthy song, the term “heart” is indispensable because we use this as an embodiment of our thoughts, feelings and emotions. For instance, when we are thinking about someone, we don’t say “you are in my brain” but we say “you are in my heart”. Similarly, when we are hurt and offended, we don’t say “I am brain-dead or brain-broken” but we say “I am heart-broken”.
Almost every religion and philosophy talks about the need of a new heart. And this has nothing do to with undergoing a heart transplant in a hospital. But having a new heart in this context of human relations means seeing things with a new attitude and from a totally new perspective and seeing and understanding things beyond what is obvious to the eye.
In the immortal song “Amazing Grace”, the singer sings that ‘once he was lost but now he has been found’ and also that ‘once he was blind but now he could see’. In reality, he was never physically lost or blind. But his perspective changed. In other words, he was now able to see things with a new attitude and realize his own wickedness and the righteousness of his creator.
In the story of the prodigal son also, the rebellious son went out on his own with his inheritance and lost everything in gambling, partying and merry-making. Ultimately he ended up in a hog pit taking care of the dirty smelly pigs. But while in the dirty hog pit, he came to his right senses and developed a new heart and decided to go back to his father not as a son but as a servant. Remember, he came out of his father’s house as an arrogant son but now he was willing to go back to his father as a humble servant. All these became possible because he had a new heart now. This is the beauty and magic of a new heart and it really can accomplish amazing things.
We attend schools and colleges which are often referred to as ‘temples of learning’. But our greatest teacher has always been our experiences. Schools and colleges may also be able to bring forth a new heart in a person. But it is our experiences of trials and tribulations that have proven to be most effective when it comes to encountering a new heart.
Our great teacher said that one should not put new wine in old wineskin. In the olden times, containers that hold wine were made out of animal skin. When the wineskin is new, it is elastic and has the capability to expand and hold more wine. But when the wineskin becomes old, it loses its elasticity and so instead of expanding it would break. In the same way, a new heart can take birth within us only when we have a teachable spirit and remain receptive and perceptive.
Life is flying by and every stage of life has its own share of ways to develop in us a new heart. But some people never seem to learn. Nobody may have much problem with a teenager thinking and behaving like a teenager. But when a forty year old still goes around thinking and behaving like a teenager, he will be a misfit everywhere because people would not see in him any sign of a new heart which he is supposed to have developed by that stage in life.
After spending 27 years in prison, when Nelson Mandela was about to walk out as a free man, he said that there would be no difference between the old Mandela and the new Mandela if he did not first leave behind all the hatred, bitterness and un-forgiveness before he walks out of prison. In other words, he wanted to walk out with a new heart in spite of being ill-treated and unfairly imprisoned for many years. He ultimately went on to become the president of his country. That’s the way life is. We can move forward and accomplish greatness only when we leave behind old things and develop a new heart within us.
Human nature is such that we want to hold on to old things because we think that we will lose if we let go of the things we have. But actually it is just the opposite. Only when we let go of things we have we can create space for new and better things to take space inside us. It’s just like unless the old occupants of a hotel move out, the new occupants cannot come in and stay because there would be no rooms unless they are emptied first. So only when you clean your heart first, God can fill it with new things. This is the underlying principle in the quest for a new heart.
The Israelites spent 430 years in slavery in Egypt. But finally through divine intervention, they were able to move out of Egypt. But even though they got out of Egypt, it is said that Egypt never got out of them. Throughout their long 40 years journey, Egypt continued to be a part of their everyday vocabulary and mindset. This is why when they were trapped at the red sea, they complained to Moses, ‘are there no graves in Egypt that you have brought us here to die in the wilderness”. Even though they were no longer slaves and had become free, they continued to think, say and do everything in relation to Egypt because, though their environment and situation had changed, their hearts had not changed. In other words, they had not developed a new heart even though God had changed everything around them.
Whereas, in the case of Nelson Mandela, though he spent 27 years in prison and though his situation did not change for 27 years, he had changed and developed a new heart. From this we can learn that if we have a teachable spirit and a perceptive mind, we can have a new heart even if our situation does not change. On the other hand, if we are foolish, stubborn and hard to teach like the Israelites, we will continue to be in the same old filthy and disgusting state of mind even when the whole situation around us changes and we will never be able to encounter the beauty, power and magic of the new heart.
